Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Playing around with
what-ifs is something that you see a lot in journalism. The speculations are
usually casual, thought-provoking, but always in good fun. This one was
decidedly different.

I was chatting with
a professor about the verdict on the Zimmerman trial, and our email exchange
revolved around a single question I had for him: was the decision a result of
the prosecution’s ineptitude to present proof, or was the jury racially
motivated? After some brief thoughts, he closed his response with the
following:

Ask yourself this, Tyler: Do you think
Zimmerman would have reacted the same way if he’d seen you walking through his
neighborhood?

‘Food for thought’
is a little bit of an understatement, no? Keep this in mind while we backtrack
a little bit here.

What we had here
with this trial was the apparent murder of a young black man by a half-white,
half-Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer. Trayvon Martin was unarmed, and
George Zimmerman carried an automatic weapon. The prosecution needed to show
that Zimmerman had malicious intent in confronting Martin, and the defense
needed to show that Martin had only been killed in self-defense—that the young man
had instigated the violence himself. At its roots though, this was a murder
case.

Sounds strange,
does it not? After all, what were the predominant themes in the media during
this whole trial? The jury is all female. There are no black people on the
jury. Zimmerman was half-white and Martin was African-American.

The questions were
worse. Was Zimmerman a racist? Was Trayvon asking for it? Should these
neighborhood watch volunteers have guns in the first place?

The real question
should be this: Are we not missing something? A young man is dead! The person
of Trayvon Martin, amidst all of the race questions and observations, was
totally lost, and it was not the first time we saw something like this.
Remember the O.J. Simpson trial? Instead of the focus being on the horrible
passing of two people, all you heard about were the white folks crying for an
outrage and the black folks cheering on “their man” as he attempts to outrace
the police. A time of mourning became a time for this inflated racial competition
of sorts.

Is this not what we
saw again here with Zimmerman? If the man was convicted, it was a victory for
blacks, a chance for some sweet justice after so many lifetimes and generations
of Rodney Kings and Emmett Tills. This may be largely justified historically,
but as we saw in the Simpson trial, there have been times where it was more
about beating the white folks and less about seeing justice for the deceased.
Of course, in the incidences like the Rodney King beating, the opposite was true
for whites—no justice, just an opportunity to show people who was in charge.

Back to the
what-if. If George Zimmerman saw me
instead of Trayvon Martin, the answer—undoubtedly and assuredly—is that he does
not give me a second thought. Instead of rousing suspicion, I am allowed to go
home and eat my Skittles and drink my iced tea and live out the rest of my
young adult life unconscious of my inadvertent advantages. There is no death,
no trial, no rousing national debate. Instead, fate was wicked enough to drop
Trayvon Martin at the wrong place at the wrong time, and now we face the
consequences of one man’s assumptions—whether he was aware of them or not.

What exactly these
consequences entail joins the list of ugly questions that America faces in the
wake of this ordeal. It is easy to point at history and say empty things along
the lines of, “But look how far we’ve come. But look where we were. But it was
so much worse.” But—but—but nothing. We live in a time where homosexuals can
marry freely, women regularly head major corporations, and a non-white
individual sits in the most powerful position on the planet. A black teenager
should be able to walk home and eat his candy in peace. We should be able to
observe critical trials without making racial alliances. We should be able to
mourn the lives that were lost without any mind toward skin color. In this
country, our desire to beat out “the other guys” in the justice system
overshadowed the tragic death of a teenager. Sure does not sound progressive to
me.

For weeks and weeks
now, we heard that we needed justice for Trayvon Martin. Whether you believe
the courts gave it to him or not does not matter now. What does matter is that
America never gave him justice. Instead, we were blinded by color, and we
failed to honor a bright young life or mourn the loss of a hopeful future.

There was never
justice for Trayvon Martin, not from us, not from the courts, not from anyone.

We have the
capacity to be better than this, but in these racially-sensitive situations, we
have not shown it. What happens next is up to us—there is no formula, no
instruction manual, no guidelines. It comes down to us being decent people, and
remembering the decent people behind all of these tragic stories. We have to
remember that this is not about race—it is about people.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

It is summer, and
you are slacking. Maybe you peel yourself off the couch or away from the fridge
long enough to see a popcorn-blockbuster or skim Game of Thrones’ Wikipedia page to catch up on what happened, but a
slacker you are, and a slacker I am too.

No longer. Seeing
as ‘tis the season to be a little butt-sore on your couch all day, I will not
stop you, because dammitall if you are not going to exercise your god-given
right to watch terrible Adam Sandler movies on FX or old re-runs of Chopped. What I want you to do though,
what I am imploring you to do, is to
use this couch time wisely. How? Easy—take some chances on the hidden gems of
Hollywood.

A lot of flicks are
lost in the never-ending cinematic shuffle these days. Whether they had the
misfortune of debuting alongside budget-bloated cash-ins or were just victims
of limited releases, there are some truly great movies out there that are
criminally under-viewed. So start pirating head on down to your local
video store (after, of course, you go back in time to when those things were
relevant) and pick up these flicks—whatever genre you prefer, you might just
find a new favorite.

Action

Shoot
‘Em Up

No, that is not two
genres mistakenly tacked on top of each other. Shoot ‘Em Up is the name of the flick, and it is a hell of a flick
to boot. Terrifically self-aware, surprisingly clever, and glossed over with a
jam-tastic soundtrack and scores of so-over-the-top-it’s-awesome action
scenes—this is one where you sit back, chomp on the munchies, and enjoy the
ride. Shoot ‘Em Up is there to point
out the ridiculousness of other shoot ‘em ups, and it does that by being as
absurd as possible. It knows exactly what it is, and it does it really darn
well.

Oh, and did I
mention that it features none other than Clive Owen spouting some of the
greatest one-liners you will ever
hear? Believe it. Turn your brain off and watch Shoot ‘Em Up.

Honorable
Mentions: Hot Fuzz

Comedy

Super
Troopers

Like Reno-911 meets . . . well,
it is pretty much a knockoff of Reno-911, but hey, it has some really quality
laughs. You follow a Highway Patrol office as they bring down a local drug
ring—simple enough.

Here is what sets
it apart though: after one viewing, it will not seem like much, but in the days
and weeks to come, it is pretty darn tough to find yourself not tempted to play
“Repeat” or “The Meow Game” amongst your friends and buddies. Just like that, a
low-key comedy suddenly blossoms into a surprisingly quotable and memorable
movie. The goofball cast and simple story rely little on big names or intricate
points—this is pure shenanigans at its very best.

In this time-travel
flick, you have Brucie Willis going back to try and hunt down the source of a
virus that wiped out five-billion folks and forced humanity underground. The
premise is intriguing, the characters are interesting, and your main man Brad
Pitt gives an Oscar-nominated performance as the prime suspect in releasing the
virus. The plot might be a little unnecessarily thick at times, but the ending
is one of the best in modern sci-fi. Great performances, a cool world, and a
huge sense of satisfaction as the puzzle pieces come together make this one to
remember—and one to wonder why you did not hear of it sooner.

Ryan Gosling plays
a recluse who buys a hyper-realistic sex doll to keep him company. Rather than
using it for the obvious, however, he keeps it around as a simple friend. The
doll accompanies him to family events, dinner parties, and through all the
staring and murmurs, there might be a thing or two to be learned about love
here. Charming, funny—I dare say it is worth watching for man and woman alike.
Clearly, there is not really much like it out there. This is Ryan Gosling like
you have not seen him. Girls will think it is cute. Guys will find a surprising
amount of charm. Good stuff.

Honorable
Mentions: Blue Valentine (highly acclaimed, but not widely-seen by general
folks. WARNING: definitely a tough watch—it is another Gosling flick, but this
chronicles a failing marriage, complete with ex-boyfriend issues, kid issues,
pregnancy issues, sex issues—one of the single most depressing movies you will
watch, but memorable and thought-provoking at the very least)

Thriller

Buried

Ryan Reynolds stars
as a truck driver who, while on tour in Iraq, wakes up in a coffin buried deep
underground. As the viewer, you wake up with him (in one of the most memorable
openings in modern cinema—no kidding—it rivals the opening of Children of Men up there, and that is
one of the single best openings ever
filmed) and never leave his side for all 90 minutes of tense, gritty claustrophobia.
This is literally an entire movie filmed in a box, and the resulting movie is
nothing short of a pure thriller experience.

This is hands-down
Ryan Reynolds best flick, and thank goodness, because this truly inventive
movie simply would not work without him. Totally delivers. If you ask me, this
is one of the most white-knuckling, force-you-to-the-edge-of-your-seat movies
put out in the last decade. Insanely tense, insanely well-done, insanely good.
And oh man—just wait until the snake arrives.

Honorable Mentions: The Prestige, The
Machinist, Memento (all highly-acclaimed flicks, and they each have killer
endings)

Sports

Goon

Finally—a sports flick that
takes the most enjoyable aspect of its chosen competition, isolates it, and
brings it to the spectacular forefront. In this case, Goon is a hockey movie, and you are darn right that it is about
fighting in hockey. It might be a classic underdog story—a bouncer named Doug
is brought onto a local Canadian hockey team purely for his fighting skills,
and soon looks to go up against the best brawler in the league—but Goon, for all its goofiness and at times
clichéd writing, brings a tremendous amount of heart. It loves its premise,
flaunts it like crazy, brings some terrific fighting action, and it just works.

This is one of
those “just trust me” kind of recommendations, but seriously, if you like
sports flicks, give Goon a try. You will not be sorry.

Honorable Mentions: Undefeated (see below), The Natural (highly-acclaimed, but oft-forgotten in the "movies I should show my kids" discussion)

War

Letters
from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood made
this one as a companion piece to Flags of
our Fathers, and unfortunately, the Japanese perspective brought forward by
this flick was brushed aside by many a star-spangled American viewer.
Regardless, Letters from Iwo Jima is
far and away the better movie—the emotion is more impactful, the characters are
more interesting, and the war action is brutal, heavy, and all too real. This
is one of the rawest war flicks you will ever see, and easily one of the best
foreign-language films made in the past decade (it is all in Japanese, in case
you did not quite catch on by now).

Far superior to its
American partner-film in every way, this is the definition of a
criminally-unviewed movie. This is one of Clint Eastwood’s best works—demands to
be experienced.

Honorable
Mentions: Jarhead, Enemy at the Gates

Indie

Primer,
Upstream Color

Usually, when the same man
directs, produces, and stars in a
movie, it is a recipe for disaster (whaddup Tommy Wiseau!), but in the case of
Shane Curruth, who does exactly this in both
of these flicks, the result is something extraordinary, if a little abstract.

It is impossible to
explain both of these simply, but in their essence, Primer is a time-travel flick and Upstream Color is a mind-control flick. Both, however, are far from
simple, and easily demand multiple viewings. Your first time through might be
rough in the comprehension department, but I promise, with some further reading
and a follow-up view down the road, the rewards are bountiful. The stories are
deep, thought-provoking, and intelligent. The performances, despite the lack of
any big name whatsoever, feel genuine. The style is distinguished and unique.
Even in not knowing everything after the fact, you can still sit back and know
that what you watched, whatever it was trying to say, did it well and delivered
one hell of an experience. Totally visceral and amazingly memorable, Primer and Upstream Color are absolute sleepers. Track them down, settle in,
and give them a shot—just be prepared to think about them, talk about them, and
invest in them for a long time to come.

Honorable
Mentions: Moonrise Kingdom

And finally . . .

The
Documentary

Really though, if there is one
thing I recommend you do this summer, it is that you hunt down some
documentaries that interest you, and watch them. Then watch more. Then find
some that you might not see normally, and watch those. Documentaries are
totally under-viewed in themselves, and believe it or not, they can offer some
of the most powerful, hard-hitting, spirit-lifting, insightful moments that the
world of movies have to offer.

As interest varies,
taste varies, so here is a slew of general recommendations:

The Imposter—a missing-person case takes a
sinister, twisted turn

Undefeated—follows an inner-city Memphis
high school football team (won Best Doc. in 2012)

Restrepo—follows a unit during the War in
Afghanistan

Hoop Dreams—looks at two young men’s
aspirations to play professional basketball

Exit
Through the Gift Shop—the evolution of street art

Enjoy your lazy
summers, friends, but whether you are finding some down-time after your summer
job or just kicking back on a weekend, I urge you to check out some of these
flicks. Look into them and be enlightened—you might just find yourself a diamond in the rough.